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We got some inheritence money with the sale of my FIL home and have completely gutted the kitchen and dining area as well as changing a one car car port to a 2 car garage. Since we have the money we are having it done.

I was going to have a cook top with a wall oven, but when pricing I found that a cooktop was about $500 more than a range, plus the cost of the wall oven

The kitchen and dining area are completely gutted right now - it amazing how much bigger it looks. It also echos quite a bit. The dogs DID NOT like walking across the plywood flooring to get outside at first, but they've gotten used to it.

I may be small, but I'm slow.

A veteran - whether active duty, retired, or national guard or reserve is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to, "The United States of America ", for an amount of "up to and including my life - it's an honor."

I'm not particularly good with building things. I started a project a week or so ago. Trying to install a new shoe storage bench in the entry from the garage. The spot is L-shaped - about 50" long and 30" deep. I framed the top shelf with 2x3s and the lower two shelves with 2x2s. I'll secure the back of the shelves to the studs in the wall and have 2x3 vertical supports on either end. The top shelf and sides will be encased with a 1x12 board. The lower shelves just have a couple 2x2s spanning the middle.

The main issues I'm dealing with now are as follows:

- I have a lot of sanding to do
- I have a lot of staining or painting to do
- The wall has molding at the base that I don't want to remove, so I'll probably have to put a notch into the bottom corner of each of the 1x12 boards on the sides.
- I need a vertical support at the front junction of the "L" to make sure this thing can hold up to someone like me sitting on it. Probably need to pick up some metal plates so I can attach a 2x2 or 2x3 between each shelf and down to the floor.

I'll try to remember to take some pictures and post them so you all can help me turn this into something not too embarrassing.

Still have some touch-up work to do, but I'm calling this project substantially completed.

I ended up using 2x12 boards for the vertical supports and 1x12's for the seating surface. My original 2x3 bench frame was the same dimensions as the other shelves. I swapped out for longer 2x3's that would span the whole length of the bench for greater stability. Each shelf is also secured to studs in the wall.

I made plenty of mistakes along the way. The one that I'm most annoyed with right now is that I should have used a rougher sandpaper and sanded a lot more. It's not nearly as smooth as I thought before I started with the primer and paint.

Here are the pictures of the new shoe storage system along with one of the old systems:

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"I think it was King Benjamin who said 'you sorry ass shitbags who have no skills that the market values also have an obligation to have the attitude that if one day you do in fact win the PowerBall Lottery that you will then impart of your substance to those without.'"
- Goatnapper'96

That would have been a lot easier. And quicker. And probably would have meant less clutter in my garage for the last 7 months.

"I think it was King Benjamin who said 'you sorry ass shitbags who have no skills that the market values also have an obligation to have the attitude that if one day you do in fact win the PowerBall Lottery that you will then impart of your substance to those without.'"
- Goatnapper'96

The kitchen is finished - I really like it - gas range and a electric wall oven. Thanksgiving and Christmas baking should be handled

The contractor started the demo for the garage this week - currently, there is no concrete in what was the car port and very deep footings as well as the old carports rafters are exposed. We hope pour the footings this week and get the whole this done in about 6 weeks. There is a question of whether or not we will be able to save the old carport. It seems the structural engineer wants more rafters or something. When the contractor opened up the rafters his thought was we should be able to save it, just have to get the SE to agree.

I'll post some pics of the kitchen if anyone is interested.

Last edited by happyone; 08-29-2017 at 09:50 PM.

I may be small, but I'm slow.

A veteran - whether active duty, retired, or national guard or reserve is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to, "The United States of America ", for an amount of "up to and including my life - it's an honor."

"I think it was King Benjamin who said 'you sorry ass shitbags who have no skills that the market values also have an obligation to have the attitude that if one day you do in fact win the PowerBall Lottery that you will then impart of your substance to those without.'"
- Goatnapper'96

A veteran - whether active duty, retired, or national guard or reserve is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to, "The United States of America ", for an amount of "up to and including my life - it's an honor."

...The contractor started the demo for the garage this week - currently, there is no concrete in what was the car port and very deep footings as well as the old carports rafters are exposed. We hope pour the footings this week and get the whole this done in about 6 weeks. There is a question of whether or not we will be able to save the old carport. It seems the structural engineer wants more rafters or something. When the contractor opened up the rafters his thought was we should be able to save it, just have to get the SE to agree.

Thnx all for the comments

Structurally the garage is done and usable, we were able to use the existing rafters. All that is left is to get power to it and it the siding installed. The power company needs to move the meter, hopefully sometime this week and then we will have power and be able to close the garage doors. We are having the siding replaced on the whole house except on the front where there is a lot of brick work - getting rid of the 1970s aluminium siding and putting an awning/poach the whole length of the front. The siding and awning should be done next week and then I'll have my house back.

Last edited by happyone; 11-08-2017 at 04:42 PM.

I may be small, but I'm slow.

A veteran - whether active duty, retired, or national guard or reserve is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to, "The United States of America ", for an amount of "up to and including my life - it's an honor."

So that drop in the ceiling... was that just for the old lighting? That a smart idea to take that out.

"If there is one thing I am, it's always right." -Ted Nugent.
"I honestly believe saying someone is a smart lawyer is damning with faint praise. The smartest people become engineers and scientists." -SU."I never preached in Texas, but I have preached in places as wicked..." -Brigham Young."If we do nothing we'll be substantially behind (other Power leagues) a decade from now." -Bob Bowlsby on Big 12 expansion.GIVE 'EM HELL, BRIGHAM!

A veteran - whether active duty, retired, or national guard or reserve is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to, "The United States of America ", for an amount of "up to and including my life - it's an honor."

I hate Rocky Mountain Power (or whatever they are calling themselves now)

It's been 19 days since we passed the city inspections. We should have had power in 7-10 working days. The contractor called the power company to move the meter and hook up the power to the garage. Today we called to find out what the problem was and get an estimated time they were going to move the meter. They said that the hold up was that we - the homeowner hadn't authorized the movement. According the contractor he has spoken to them 4 or 5 time in the last 10 days and NOBODY said anything about needing homeowner authorization. It will be 7-10 working days from today to have the meter moved and power in the garage

Appearently adding a garage and moving the meter is considered new construction

I'm too damn nice for my own good sometimes

Last edited by happyone; 11-20-2017 at 10:03 PM.

I may be small, but I'm slow.

A veteran - whether active duty, retired, or national guard or reserve is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to, "The United States of America ", for an amount of "up to and including my life - it's an honor."

We have a Jack n Jill bathroom in our upstairs and one side used to have a door that led from the hallway as well as the other door that led into the bedroom. This caused the bathroom to only have a really small vanity/sink combo with very little storage. Go figure, we put our oldest daughter. Ever since she became a teenager (or started wearing makeup or at least around that time) she's wanted more counter and storage space. We finally decided to close off the door from the hallway since it rarely gets used and we wanted to put in a vanity that would span the entire width of the sink area room. While I'm sure I could have closed off the door area since it's not very hard to frame out, I didn't want to do the drywall since I suck at drywall. We had a contractor close it in back in the spring when we were also putting recessed lighting in the kitchen. He charged us like $300 to do it.

However, I wanted to build the vanity. I had a couple other projects to finish up before working on it so I finally got around to it this fall. The original plan was to simply extend the existing vanity, so I built an extension that look just like the other but had a seating area and drawers. I ordered a custom vanity top, however the vanity top maker messed up and put the sink bowl 5 inches too far to the right. That meant I either had to return the vanity top or just scrap the vanity I built and just build an entire vanity that would span the entire length and would fit the messed up vanity top. I called to see about a return and they held firm that I had given them the wrong measurements. I was sure I didn't since the measurement they had was nothing close to anything else I had given them or ever measured. Since the vanity top was through Home Depot (it was a supplier that made it so HD was just the intermediary) they offered to refund the amount and order a new one. I was pretty upset but after sleeping on it, I decided it would be best to just build one custom vanity instead of going through the hassle of the return, waiting, and to be honest the older vanity could use some upgrades and the placement of the sink in the new vanity top was actually better, to be honest.

I set to work building the entire thing which forced me to revise all my plans, but this time I could make it exactly as my daughter wanted without the constraints of the old vanity dimensions. I bought some new plywood and within a weeks time, jsut working at night after the kids go to bed, I had it done. My daughter and I painted it over the weekend (Sat/Sun) and I decided to wait unitl Tuesday to install it since I knew I'd need HD or Lowes to be open for stuff I didn't have at the time.

Anyway, I just got done installing it and it turned out pretty good for my first vanity. There were a couple difficult things with the install (given the tight quarters and it being my first time) but overall I'm very pleased with the end result. I still have to paint the drawers and build the doors for the drain area. Here's a couple pictures of the process:

"Discipleship is not a spectator sport. We cannot expect to experience the blessing of faith by standing inactive on the sidelines any more than we can experience the benefits of health by sitting on a sofa watching sporting events on television and giving advice to the athletes. And yet for some, “spectator discipleship” is a preferred if not primary way of worshipping." -Pres. Uchtdorf

Very nice, Moli... If that accounting gig doesn't work out for you come up to the Big D. I have some work that you can help me with.

"If there is one thing I am, it's always right." -Ted Nugent.
"I honestly believe saying someone is a smart lawyer is damning with faint praise. The smartest people become engineers and scientists." -SU."I never preached in Texas, but I have preached in places as wicked..." -Brigham Young."If we do nothing we'll be substantially behind (other Power leagues) a decade from now." -Bob Bowlsby on Big 12 expansion.GIVE 'EM HELL, BRIGHAM!

Not much relaxing this week. I've been doing little projects all week that get put off because I'm always behind at work. One such project was tearing out the old shelves in our storage room, which were too deep, and put in shelves on both sides with an aisle down the center.

After getting that done, there was a wet spot in the corner of the storage room. So today I pulled off the not so dry wall. Thankfully it was put up with screws, so I'll be able to reuse it. It really only got a little wet on the bottom corner. The grey water drain from the kitchen runs across the top of the wall and down that corner. The 90 degree elbow was leaking. No permanent damage. I patched it up with new pipe, and put a fan on it to dry it out.

I was going to build new shelves, but opted to buy some shelving units I can put together easily. I've actually had a blast this week working with my hands. It's good for the soul.

"Discipleship is not a spectator sport. We cannot expect to experience the blessing of faith by standing inactive on the sidelines any more than we can experience the benefits of health by sitting on a sofa watching sporting events on television and giving advice to the athletes. And yet for some, “spectator discipleship” is a preferred if not primary way of worshipping." -Pres. Uchtdorf

Drawers installed and doors built/attached. Had to do a little touch up paint. Overall, I’m pleased with it.

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"Discipleship is not a spectator sport. We cannot expect to experience the blessing of faith by standing inactive on the sidelines any more than we can experience the benefits of health by sitting on a sofa watching sporting events on television and giving advice to the athletes. And yet for some, “spectator discipleship” is a preferred if not primary way of worshipping." -Pres. Uchtdorf

Yes, there is, but only because they are only 10 inches long. I had to make sure you could fully take the drawers out. Kind of sucks they are shallow, but it's the only thing that would fit. I would have made cubbies on that side and put hte drawers on the other side, but the sink placement made it impossible to put decent sized drawers on the other side.

The angle of that wall and the other door jamb made installing the cabinets a littel difficult. After trying several different angles, I finally put one in all the way and then lifted the other one up over the other and basically dropped it straight down into position.

"Discipleship is not a spectator sport. We cannot expect to experience the blessing of faith by standing inactive on the sidelines any more than we can experience the benefits of health by sitting on a sofa watching sporting events on television and giving advice to the athletes. And yet for some, “spectator discipleship” is a preferred if not primary way of worshipping." -Pres. Uchtdorf

Here’s the first cabinet I made for the vanity. It is the one that didn’t work because of the placement of the sink. Instead of scrapping it, MJ had the great idea of turning it into a desk. So I threw a piece of plywood on top and viola!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

"Discipleship is not a spectator sport. We cannot expect to experience the blessing of faith by standing inactive on the sidelines any more than we can experience the benefits of health by sitting on a sofa watching sporting events on television and giving advice to the athletes. And yet for some, “spectator discipleship” is a preferred if not primary way of worshipping." -Pres. Uchtdorf